Recent Statements Muddle U.S. Stance on Venezuela (washingtonpost.com)

Eight months after it cheerfully acquiesced to an apparent coup in Venezuela, only to find egg on its face just hours later when President Hugo Chavez emerged still in power, the Bush administration now worries that a reinstated Chavez may be the least of its problems in South America's oil capital.

There is still no love lost for Chavez, who is viewed as a worrisome populist with ties too close for comfort to Cuba's Fidel Castro and Colombia's leftist guerrillas. But the one thing Chavez never threatened, senior officials said, was Venezuela's oil exports to the United States.

Over the past two weeks, anti-Chavez strikes have brought the country to a halt, including the shipments that supply 15 percent of U.S. oil imports. With Chavez seen as digging in his heels and unlikely to capitulate to the increasingly disruptive opposition, the administration would support a negotiated solution that left him in power, as long as it was done legally and brought the political upheaval and violence to an end, officials said.

It would be interesting to know who is leaking this.

You should also listen to this from Between The Lines --
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